Karsten Schmeling

from left to right: Karsten Schmeling, Bernd Niesecke , Bernd Eichwurzel , Frank Klawonn and Hendrik Reiher become GDR champions in a four-man with helmsman in 1988

Karsten Schmeling (born January 13, 1962 in Hennigsdorf ) is a former rower from the GDR. In 1988 Schmeling was Olympic champion in a four-man with helmsman .

Schmeling rowed for SG Dynamo Potsdam under coach Bernd Landvoigt . In 1979 he won bronze at the Junior World Championships in the four-man without a helmsman , and in 1980 he became the junior world champion in a two-man without a helmsman . 1981 Schmeling made his debut at the world championship in the adult class. The two-man from Potsdam with coxswain Schmeling, Jürgen Seyfarth and coxswain Hendrik Reiher fought for second place on the regatta course in Oberschleißheim near Munich behind the also very young Italian boat Abbagnale , Abbagnale and Di Capua . In 1982 the Potsdamer could not beat the three Italians at the world championship on the Rotsee near Lucerne and received their second silver medal. In 1983 at the world championship in Duisburg, the three Potsdamers competed in eighth position , again they took second place, in this boat class behind the New Zealanders.

After Schmeling had won medals in four of the five classes in oar rowing in the junior and adult classes , his most successful time was to follow in the fifth class: the four with a helmsman. At the 1985 World Championships, the Potsdam four-man rowed with Bernd Eichwurzel , Bernd Niesecke , Karsten Schmeling, Dietmar Schiller and helmsman Hendrik Reiher and won the bronze medal. In 1986 Frank Klawonn moved into the Potsdam four for Schiller. In the line-up of Karsten Schmeling, Bernd Niesecke, Bernd Eichwurzel, Frank Klawonn and Hendrik Reiher, the boat won the GDR championship in 1986 and 1988. The boat won the world championship title in 1986 in Nottingham and 1987 in Copenhagen. On the day after the four-man final in Copenhagen, Schmeling competed with eighth and finished second behind the US eighth. At the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, Schmeling focused on the Potsdam four-man, who won almost three seconds ahead of the boat from Romania. In 1989 Schmeling missed a world championship medal for the first time when he finished fourth with the four.

Karsten Schmeling worked for the People's Police until the fall of the Berlin Wall and then returned to his learned profession as a car mechanic. In 1986 and 1988 he was awarded the Patriotic Order of Merit in Gold.

literature

• Volker Kluge : The great lexicon of GDR athletes. The 1000 most successful and popular athletes from the GDR, their successes and biographies. Schwarzkopf and Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-348-9 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Neues Deutschland , October 15, 1986, p. 7
2. ↑ Neues Deutschland, 12./13. November 1988, p. 4

Web links

• Karsten Schmeling in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• German successes at world championships